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Moore: Death taxes are immoral – and they don’t work

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

“I have no respect for the passion of equality,” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of America’s great jurists, once declared, “which seems to me merely idealizing envy.”But envy, and its sister vice, greed, are very much back in fashion today when it comes to the progressive Left. Just listen to President Joe Biden, who wants $2 trillion of new taxes, mostly paid by millionaires, so that the rich will “pay their fair share.” In seven blue states, including California, Illinois and New York, new wealth taxes and higher income tax rates on people such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Taylor Swift have been proposed by liberal lawmakers.Biden said billionaires aren’t “paying their fair share” and shouldn’t be paying a lower tax rate than a firefighter. That’s a ridiculous claim. The richest 1% of Americans pay 42% of the income taxes in America. That’s near an all-time record high.The Tax Foundation reports tha...

Silverglate: A proposal for simple, effective police reform

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

The current avalanche of proposals for police reform, in the wake of tragic deaths of civilians, often racial minorities, at the hands of law enforcement officers got me thinking back to a proposal that I devised during the Vietnam War (1955-75).Back then, I represented many conscientious objectors – those who refused induction into the military (at that time there was military conscription, or “the draft”) on a ground not recognized as supporting an exemption from service, ordinarily granted only to religiously-based conscientious objectors. That exemption was later broadened, but it never covered mere political objections to a particular war. Those refusing induction without a qualifying exemption were indicted.When it came time for sentencing, most federal judges were hesitant to incarcerate these men. I, and other defense lawyers, kept many of our clients out of prison by proposing to judges that, in lieu of military service, and instead of incarceration, our clients be sentence...

Editorial: Another minimum wage hike bad for biz

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

Raising the minimum wage is either a great idea or a terrible one, depending on which side of the paycheck you’re on.For workers and their advocates, the minimum wage can’t be high enough. As State House News reported,  polling suggests statewide support for another minimum wage hike. A whopping 59% of Bay State voters said they would support raising the minimum wage here to $20 an hour compared to 33% who are opposed and 7% who are undecided, according to the results of a new poll shared first with MASSterList.Considering that the current minimum wage in Massachusetts is $15 an hour (the fourth-highest in the country), that’s a 33% raise. Who wouldn’t want that, especially as costs are rising?It takes nearly $18 as of November 2022 to buy what $15 bought in June 2018, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.You know who’s also impacted by rising costs? Businesses, especially small ones, restaurants, and virtually anyone who has payroll cost...

Dear Abby: A reminder for parents – words matter

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

Dear Abby: While shopping at the mall, I have seen too many stressed-out parents ignore or yell at their children. It certainly isn’t helpful. It isn’t how I was raised or how I raised mine. Years ago, I saw a poem in your column that addressed the ramifications of bad parenting versus good parenting. From what I’ve been seeing, you should print it again. Thank you. — Janet F. in MinnesotaDear Janet:  I know the poem you are referring to and I agree it sends an important message for parents. It’s one of many profound poems and essays included in my “Keepers” booklet, which was compiled because so many readers requested reprints of their favorites. Read on:Children Learn What They LiveBy Dorothy Law NolteIf a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemnIf a child lives with hostility, he learns to fightIf a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shyIf a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guiltyIf a child lives with tolerance, h...

Honduras will seek ties with China, spurning Taiwan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras President Xiomara Castro announced Tuesday that her government will seek to establish diplomatic relations with China, which would imply severing relations with Taiwan. The switch would leave Taiwan recognized by only 13 countries as China spends billions to win recognition for its “One China” policy.Castro said on her Twitter account that she instructed Honduran Foreign Affairs Minister Eduardo Reina to start negotiations with China and that her intention is “expand frontiers freely in concert with the nations of the world.”Castro said during her presidential campaign in 2021 that she would look for ties with China if elected, but once in power, her government backtracked on those comments. In January 2022, the foreign affairs minister told The Associated Press that Honduras would continue strengthening ties with Taiwan and that establishing a diplomatic relationship with China was not a priority for Castro.Reina, the Foreign Affairs Minister, ...

Clashes erupt in Pakistan as police try to arrest Imran Khan

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Clashes between Pakistan’s police and supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan persisted outside his home in the eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday, a day after officers went to arrest him for failing to appear in court on graft charges.The police operation triggered clashes between Khan’s supporters and police in the country’s major cities, including Karachi, Islamabad, the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Quetta and elsewhere in Pakistan.For the past 18 hours, police were firing tear gas at the house as the 70-year-old opposition leader’s supporters hurled rocks and bricks at the officers. The upscale area of Zaman Park where Khan lives was under siege since Tuesday. The government was sending additional police to tackle the situation after hundreds of Khan’s supporters showed unexpected perseverance.Early Wednesday, Khan emerged from his house to meet with his supporters, who faced tear gas and police batons the w...

New Mexico enacts law to keep guns away from children

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill Friday that makes it a crime to store firearms in places that children could access.The new law takes effect on June 16. Earlier this year, a 6-year-old student in Virginia shot his teacher, which added to debates across the country about gun control and school safety.The New Mexico bill would make it a crime to store a firearm in a way that negligently disregards the ability of a child or teenager under age 18 to access it. Criminal charges could be brought only if the minor later brandishes or displays the firearm in a threatening way, or uses it to kill or injure someone. The proposal would establish both misdemeanor and felony crimes, with penalties of up to 18 months in prison.Criminal provisions do not apply if a child accesses a gun with authorization of a parent or guardian for lawful purposes including hunting and recreation. The law also includes exceptions when a child accesses a gun for self-defen...

Not magic: Opaque AI tool may flag parents with disabilities

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

PITTSBURGH (AP) — For the two weeks that the Hackneys’ baby girl lay in a Pittsburgh hospital bed weak from dehydration, her parents rarely left her side, sometimes sleeping on the fold-out sofa in the room.They stayed with their daughter around the clock when she was moved to a rehab center to regain her strength. Finally, the 8-month-old stopped batting away her bottles and started putting on weight again.“She was doing well and we started to ask when can she go home,” Lauren Hackney said. “And then from that moment on, at the time, they completely stonewalled us and never said anything.”The couple was stunned when child welfare officials showed up, told them they were negligent and took their daughter away.“They had custody papers and they took her right there and then,” Lauren Hackney recalled. “And we started crying.”More than a year later, their daughter, now 2, remains in foster care. The Hackneys, who have developmental disabilities, are struggling to understand how taking t...

How Washington came to rescue US banks

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — After the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters started furiously working the phones to find out what was going on with the failed lender — and what would happen to its panicked depositors.Waters, former chair of the House Financial Services Committee, had her doubts that another bank would step up as a savior and buy the defunct institution.“Banks don’t just wake up and say: ‘Oh, there’s a problem with another significant bank and they’ve collapsed. Let’s just take it over,’’’ she said.So began a frenetic weekend of nonstop briefings with regulators, lawmakers, administration officials and President Joe Biden himself about how to handle the demise of the nation’s 16th-biggest bank and a go-to financial institution for tech entrepreneurs. At the core of the problem was tens of billions of dollars — including money companies needed to meet payrolls — sitting in Silicon Valley Bank accounts that were not protected by f...

Why US troops remain in Iraq 20 years after ‘shock and awe’

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 20:39:15 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty years after the U.S. invaded Iraq — in blinding explosions of shock and awe — American forces remain in the country in what has become a small but consistent presence to ensure an ongoing relationship with a key military and diplomatic partner in the Middle East.The roughly 2,500 U.S. troops are scattered around the country, largely in military installations in Baghdad and in the north. And while it is a far cry from the more than 170,000 U.S. forces in Iraq at the peak of the war in 2007, U.S. officials say the limited — but continued — troop level is critical as a show of commitment to the region and a hedge against Iranian influence and weapons trafficking.A look at America’s evolving role in Iraq:HOW DID IT START? The U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003 in what it called a massive “shock and awe” bombing campaign that lit up the skies, laid waste to large sections of the country and paved the way for American ground troops to converge on Baghdad. The i...